Tommy Scares Them Still

Election delays Tommy Douglas miniseries

Long after he has passed on, Tommy scares the bejesus out of the political establishment still. The Ghost of Tommy could literally haunt this election campaign as the NDP focus on the privatization of Health Care and how the Liberals and Tories have no plan to stop it. Yep good old Tommy could swing votes to the NDP if the CBC showed this miniseries. Folks would remember when the Left was the New Idea,and that neo-con was just another way of saying Conservative or same old tired ideas. After all Tommy is our Greatest Canadian.

"The [Liberal] federal government's trouble is that they have a wishbone where they should have a backbone."




Tommy Douglas was the most influential politician never to be elected Prime Minister.

Blogging Dippers

Congrats to Robert over at My Bhlag for creating the new Blogging Dippers aggregate newsreader for NDP blogs. No longer just a blog listing site, it actually carries stories. The page looks nice and clean, just in time for the election.

Parental Controls

Adults only? Today’s parents are often shocked by the level of violence depicted in many of the video games...Watchdog group warns parents against offensive video games Uh huh, so who is buying these games for their kids and don't they read the boxes where it says MATURE, Gore and Violence......and do parents really need a watchdog group to tell them the following titles might just be adult, violent, full of blood and gore? Resident Evil 4, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, God of War, Narc, Killer 7, The Warriors, 50 Cent: Bulletproof,Crime Life: Gang Wars, Condemned: Criminal Origins, True Crime: New York City.

Hey We're Famous

Election bloggers waste no time dishing the dirt

This article sure spends alot of time focusing on how the blogosphere responed to Scott Feschuks blog at Liberal.ca With nary a word about the Conservative blog.....so I guess that tells you which of these two blogs should really be drawn, hung and quartered as the poll over at progressive bloggers asks. And it ain't Feschuks cause he at least is actually writing his blog, the Conservative blog is a rehashed press release prior to editing.

Ignatieff Ignites Controversy

Ignatieff endures heckling
Wins nomination
In the foyer outside the meeting, one protester donned a George W. Bush mask and waved a sign saying: "Bush-Ignatieff -- Partners in crime," in protest against Mr. Ignatieff's support for the war in Iraq. Another protester, Irene Oliinyk, complained that Mr. Ignatieff has argued torture was acceptable for detainees in Iraq. "Why would the Liberals parachute someone like that into the riding?" Yep you have to ask yourself that, and I am sure the Liberals are too considering that PM has distanced himself from Ignatieff, but then again what did anyone expect when the new Philosopher King of Empire was touted as the next best thing to replace PM.

Another Harper Gaffe

I love it. Who is running the Conservative media war room Bozo the clown? Global Television has two TVspots one about Harper failing to introduce his Quebec all star team and the other about the media having to chase a Tory candidate for an interview during the scrum. This is hilarious. Harper (doesn't) introduce Tory candidates

CBC Poll-It's Health Care Stupid.

The CBC /Environics poll shows that Health Care remains the top issue with Canadians this election, as it has been in previous elections. It also shows that 66% of Canadians feel SSM is a settled issue, and that the three main parties NDP, Liberals and Conservatives are neck and neck when it comes to honesty in government. However;

• Almost three-quarters of Canadians asked said they don't expect politicians to keep their promises once they're in power.
• 56 per cent expressed little or no confidence at all in federal political leaders.
• 63 per cent said all the federal political parties are pretty much the same when it comes to honesty and integrity - yet 94 per cent said honesty and integrity in government are either somewhat or very important in determining how they plan to vote.

Wal Mart Exploits Child Labour

Taking a page from Nike and its famous corporate code of conduct, Wal-Mart is now claiming to have changed its evil ways and is no longer exploiting child labour in the third world. And just like Nike, Wal-Marts self imposed code of conduct isn't wortyh the paper its written on.The truth of the matter is always different than the corporate press release. What sounds good on paper, is just that, paper.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, is promoting a corporate code of conduct that it calls one of the strictest in the industry. But an investigation by SRC, the French-language service of the CBC, casts doubt on the company's capacity to enforce that code in dealing with Third World countries.

For less than $50 per month, workers in Bangladesh knit, sew and pack clothes for sale around the world, and some garments end up at Wal-Mart stores in Canada.

SRC journalists posed as buyers in the Canadian garment industry so they could videotape inside factories in Bangladesh with hidden cameras.

In one factory, typical of many in the country, children were busy with lower-skill tasks. In badly lit, dirty and overheated workshops, young boys were everywhere.

A label reading Simply Basic, one of Wal-Mart's in-house brand names along with the number CA 28885, the corporate ID of Wal-Mart Canada, was seen in the factory.

The same factory also produces Wal-Mart's corporate T-shirt for Canada.

The factory manager told SRC that the children are working on domestic production.

"They do not work on export garments, like Wal-Mart's," said Liakot Patwary. "I can give you [a] guarantee."

But after filling many orders, Patwary said he had never met inspectors from the company and Wal-Mart had not visited the factory.

When shown the images from the report, Wal-Mart explained that the factories were subcontractors with no direct business link with Wal-Mart. Still, the company's representative in Montreal acknowledged the problem.

Yep Just Do It....exploit child labour but blame it on the subcontractors, just like Nike does........

Still Radical after all these years

Today I turn 51 and must say that all the predictions, when I was younger, that I would mellow with age, go conservative, become 'the man', failed to come true. Kicking Establishment butt for 38 years. Yep I was once a young radical, come to think of it I still am.


TODAY'S FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS

• Martin Klaproth
  chemist (1743)
• Marie Tussaud
  modeler in wax (1760)
• Walter Alston
  baseball manager (1911)
• Minoru Yamasaki
  architect (1912)
• Mary Martin
  singer, actress (1913)
• Woody Allen
  actor, writer, and director (1935)
• Lee Trevino
  golfer (1939)
• Richard Pryor
  comedian, actor (1940)
• Bette Middler
  singer, actress (1945)

Tory Opportunism

Reform/Alliance/Conservative Edmonton East MP Peter Goldring's opportunism knows no bounds.

He has issued a press release denouncing the controversial Etobicoke-Lakeshore Liberal candidate Michael Ignatieff.

Hmmm, now why would he care about a Liberal, even such a high profile one, running in Hogtown?

Well their ridings share something in common, both have lots of Ukrainians in them. And low and behold the Liberal candidate in Edmonton East is Ukrainian.

I love this quote though; "Mr. Ignatieff is descended from Russian royalty,” said Goldring

I thought Goldring and the rest of the anti-Bolshevik right whingnuts loved the Tzar and Russian Royality.

A tip o the blog to Daveberta for this. He also noted that NDP looks like it might take second place in some Edmonton ridings since the Liberals have been so slow off the mark to get anyone nominated. See I am not the only one who says Redmonton ain't a sure thing for the Conservatives or Liberals.